Document Management System Enables Digital Archiving of Paper-Based Documentation, Microfilm, and Diagnostic Images

A new document management system (DMS) supports and enhances hospital information management on all levels. Digital archives save space and money, while providing clinicians and staff with easy access to records from anywhere within the hospital.

Agfa HealthCare (Mortsel, Belgium), a developer of diagnostic imaging and healthcare information technology (IT) solutions, reported that it is launching HYDMedia, its leading DMS for healthcare organizations, to the UK market. HYDMedia is an IT solution that enables healthcare facilities to archive digitally healthcare information including all paper-based documents, laboratory data, and diagnostic images to provide a single view of the clinical and administrative record. All records are stored using a patient context and are therefore easily displayed within a case or episode, or via specialty or document type if preferred.

Healthcare has always been, and remains one of the most document intensive industries. By digitizing these archives, healthcare organizations are able to reduce the space and expense needed to store such information over often variable and extensive periods of time. Digitization further enables administrators and clinicians to call up and file these documents quickly via a single web-based portal, while enterprise-wide content management solutions make data recovery possible in case of a disaster, like fire or flood, securing critical information that would normally would have been lost in paper format.

"Hospitals around the UK are, even today, still faced with paper-based archives so extensive that they often require multiple storage buildings to house them. Not to mention the fact that specific measures have to be taken to safeguard and manage these records - a significant cost and risk,” stated Grant Witheridge, general manager of Agfa HealthCare UK. "Agfa HealthCare's HYDMedia document management system helps hospitals move their information management into the 21st century by enabling organizations to not only save space, but also to improve overall retrieval time and improve disaster recovery, enabling a smoother and more efficient workflow. The appropriate documents and images can be accessed easily via a single web-based portal meaning that disparate islands of information no longer exist resulting in a content management platform that meets the needs of healthcare.”

Since its inception in the Agfa HealthCare enterprise informatics portfolio, HYDMedia has been in use in over 300 hospital facility locations across Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. HYDMedia is offered either as part of Agfa HealthCare's hospital and clinical IT system Orbis, its leading image management and storage solution Impax Data Center, or as a stand-alone solution. The specialist system has been developed to support and enhance hospital information management on all levels, such as hospital, clinical, laboratory and radiology information systems (EPR/CIS/LIS/RIS) as well as patient, administrative and financial information.

HYDMedia is developed to maintain the integrity of the scanned documents and enables access to these archived documents by multiple users, spread over different locations, at the same time.

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